


Should Auld Acquaintance….

by Lilachigh



Category: Gosford Park (2001)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:53:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3113699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilachigh/pseuds/Lilachigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>asked for Gosford Park story, with friendship between Mary and Elsie.  Not sure if this is exactly friendship but hope it is OK.</p><p>The time is now summer 1934, two years after the events took place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should Auld Acquaintance….

**Author's Note:**

  * For [athenejen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/athenejen/gifts).



Should Auld Acquaintance..... 

It was very dark inside the cinema; Mary had to feel cautiously inside the box of chocolates on her lap for one with a soft centre. Her hat felt tight on her head and her new shoes pinched, but the warmth from the arm leaning against her own was enough to banish any pain. The cartoon they were watching was very funny but Mary had learnt in a hard school that showing your feelings in public was not the right and proper behaviour for a lady’s maid.

As the short ended and the lights went up for an interval, there was a rustle of anticipation throughout the audience. Only last week, they had come to see pretty Miss Shirley Temple in Little Miss Marker, and watched as a star was born. And now...

“We’ve come a long way since Gosford Park,” a voice murmured in her ear.

“Aye, some of us more than others.”

“Does the Countess know what you do on your day off?”

“She guesses I go to the cinema - she’s never been herself, of course, but always wants me to tell her the plots of the films and once - ” she stopped and giggled, then, "once I found her reading one of my magazines, looking at photographs of Leslie Howard!"

“And have you told her you’re leaving her service yet?” A hand grasped hers, warm and hard and compelling.

“America’s a long way away. We’ll know no one.”

“Not true - we have an invitation and if that falls through, we can always get jobs in some posh household.”

Mary squeezed the hand in silent agreement as the house lights dimmed and the screen lit up as the credits began to roll. She could hardly breath as the film began and a star who would soon be as big as Myrna Loy or Bette Davis, glided onto the screen. The last time she’d seen Elsie had been on the driveway of Gosford Park, getting into Mr Weissman’s car. Now, tall, blonde, sophisticated Elaine Williams was making her film debut and carefully tucked away in Mary’s handbag was a letter pleading for her and Robert to come to Hollywood because as she put it, in the back-stabbing, disloyal world she now inhabited, she needed friends with experience of both.


End file.
